Got the good fellow at powersteering.com to rebuild my steering box. Great work but the car is all over the road. Took it by a shop and the guy confirmed it’s not the shaft but the box itself. He suggested tightening the wedge. Wheel and lower shaft have zero play but it seems the box doesn’t engage soon enough. Enlighten me, can or should I tighten said wedge? And how is that done correctly. Thanks!

 

Did you change anything else in the steering system or just the box? Are you sure that nothing else is worn out which is causing the issue? Check the rag joint on the shaft and look at the entire system piece by piece.

 

Everything is new and replaced, torqued to spec. When you rotate the shaft you can see the box not engaging it until it turns maybe a 1/4 inch

 

The problem may be the lash adjustment screw on top of the box. You set your front wheels pointing straight. You can do this by measuring from the steering arm ball joint to the lower control arm bolt on each side of the car. Then you loosen the nut on the steering box while holding the stud from turning. You then turn the stud clockwise until it stops, don't force it. then back off a 1/4 turn. Afterwards, you tighten the nut while, again, keeping the stud from turning.

Hope this helps,

Fred

 

Hopefully this works but with the car up off the ground this is the dead zone, so to speak, where it just doesn’t seem to have any tension. I’m steering hunting going down the road. Sloppy and don’t feel like crashing into a ditch over this…help appreciated

 

My stock box doesn't have that much play. If your steering components are all good and the only spot you have that dead zone is the shaft where it goes into the box then it's the box itself. I've heard plenty of stories about rebuilt boxes not working well. You can adjust the over center screw to take up some slack but the rebuilder should have done that during the rebuild. When the box was "rebuilt" what did they do? Just seals/bearings/bushings? Or did it get gears also? Some companies just inspect and put new seals in. Then the box is a sloppy pos.

 

Well, according to his website it should’ve been completely overhauled. I did tighten up the wedge about a half turn and that definitely helped the drivability. So maybe a dumb question but could it possibly need another alignment? On the drivers side I had to disconnect the tie rod but car didn’t move an inch while the box was away. I dunno guys, I’m not a steering guru so kinda stuck.

 

There are 2 adjustments. They must be done in order, otherwise you'll never get it right. Just twiddling on the Allen is useless and ineffective until the first one is dialed in.

The first one is for the worm (attached to the steering column) shaft. It has a giant locknut, maybe 3" hex or so, made of sheet metal, that goes around the column. The actual adjustable thing is an almost featureless cylindrical threaded part, with 2 small holes in the face that you can see, for a spanner wrench. This should be adjusted by raising the front wheels off the ground, backing the Allen screw that everybody always dinks with completely off, and tightening the worm shaft adjuster in tiny increments until a sudden increase in torque required to turn the steering column is noted. The way it works is, the nut pushes down on a Torrington bearing preloaded by a Belleville washer; there's almost no preload at all until the Belleville is fully flattened, so that's what you're looking for. It's VERY sensitive around that point. Worse, the threads are crude, meaning that retightening the locknut will affect it. I always find it easiest to only just barely loosen the locknut such that it still exerts a good bit of tension on the adjuster. You can loosen the locknut with a large cold chisel, and usually get to the nut with about a 3/16" punch. Wouldn't be too hard to make a spanner if you can weld butt I've never done that. It would have to be very thin to fit behind the rubber U-joint, and the 2 points would have to be pretty short as well; and it would need to be made in such a way that the spanner part could be turned with respect to the handle part, since access to it is tight.

Then adjust the one on top of the box while your assistant shakes the wheel back and forth, and you watch the Pitman arm. When this is too loose the Pitman shaft will bang around in there sideways, and of course there will be play. Tighten the Allen until all of that goes away and your assistant reports suddenly higher torque on the wheel being necessary to turn it, then back it off to just barely looser.

Then go road-test it. Odds are, it'll take coupla tries to dial it in.

If the worm shaft adjustment is too tight the steering will fail to re-center and may feel like it has "stiction". Very unpleasant. Rather than trying to find the right spot by way of torque on the column, I usually end up tightening it until it becomes "too tight", then backing it off until it's just barely looser than that. If the Pitman shaft adjustment is too tight the whole thing will feel like it's binding up.

 

Incidentally: the torque on the worm shaft should be maybe 2 - 3 in-lbs on the stub shaft (the part of the worm that the rag joint attaches to) with everything fully loose, i.e. seal drag, then proper adjustment of the worm nut should add maybe 3 - 4 in-lbs to whatever that was, then the Pitman shaft should add another 3 - 5 in-lbs. You should end up with something in the 10 - 15 neighborhood when done. All this with the Pitman arm disconnected from the steering, if you want to get this precise with it. Might save you the trouble of multiple iterations if you do it that way, if one-and-done is your preference.

 

Greatly appreciate that info. Before I go diving into that I do want to possibly rule out any other causes or maybe even contributing causes.

1. I did replace the steering shaft, stock was 40 yr old so why not. It’s a TRQ brand part from 1A Auto. Had good luck with them before but who knows on this one. TRQ SHAFT LINK

2. any chance I threw the alignment off when I disconnected the tie rod end and the pitman arm to remove the gearbox? Again not a steering guy so don’t know

3. Would the upgraded upper steering column bearing from hawks help anything? Bearing link I took the 40 year old stock assembly off, cleaned it, greased it up and put it back on. Rubber seals were actually in phenomenal shape after all these years.

4. Greatest question of all…did I get a botched rebuild? Was I wrong to expect “plug and play” basically? It normal to need all these adjustments post fact?

thanks everyone

V/r

 

The column bearing doesn't make that much of a change. My 82 actually had a bearing stock, so some cares actually have it already. A new shaft without a rag joint/new rag joint will help but not if the box is the issue. If the front end parts are tight it's the box. The prior post on adjusting is the proper way to adjust these boxes. But if it's rebuild you shouldn't have to. Most rebuilds come w paint marking the positions of the adjustments and if you change these adjustments you void the warranty. Most companies that sell new rebuild boxes send it out setup well. The issue is when a "rebuild" is rebuilt poorly or just inspected and re sealed. Ive had lots of lifted trucks that eat up boxes. The rebuilds never last and often companies clean them, put some new parts in /seals and paint it. Usually they use the old gears and bearings. New boxes are the way to go. I've never had a rebuild last or feel like a new box. Finding a smaller company like Lee power steering may help or just get a new borgeson box. They're 500 and new.